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Sometimes ...
(not always) ...
Teamriders are required to fib abit about certain aspects of product on this forum.
Do teamriders really have any cred ??
So who does eppo team ride for...?
He gets a kites and says how good they are and then changes over to different gear...
Maybe his shop stocks lots of different brands?
Lol...
Haa yeah
I really liKe the "Ferarri of kites pimp crap" especially when the real Bugatti Veyron and Standard Nissan GTR kites have already disappeared over the clouds or horizon
So, Ben Wilson kites aren't the best kites ever to exist then??? Jeez, that's a shame....
When the main expectation of a 'team' rider is be an ambassador for the brand you can't expect that any of them, are going to bite the hand that gave them the gear and say anything bad, simple fact of life...
Damn I'm getting smashed and I haven't said anything yet. Lol. Waveslave has set me up. Lol.
you are all correct though I have been changing gear too often. Such an impetuous sod. But also I don't then hang crap on my older kites
But yeh fair cop. merry Christmas crew.
I ride for brands and I will tell you exactly what I think of everything if you ask me. Obvious pimps are obvious.
Usually the people who can afford to buy their own gear will be more honest than the young kid being given gear.
Also the best ambassadors are the ones with sponsorship from a shop rather than a brand, they then get to choose from a range of gear
What amuses me is that each year team riders come out and say that this years kite is sooooo much better than last years kite. sometimes when theres a new model. yes. But successive upgrades over the years. its only minor improvements.
I'd liek to here the trueth. last years was awesome this year is slightly more awesome!
Waveslave has a good point. Kiteforum has become unreadable due to the amount of 'keyboard riders" that pollute the pages. That said I think regular users can pick the difference and have opinions they value more. Dave (WA) Paul (QLD) Rowdy (NSW gay style) Saffer (Vic) and a few others have straight reviews. Their opinions sometimes differ to mine at times, but thats the point of a review. I got stuck in a rut once with surfboards, and had a guy tell me.. forget trying to clone a broken board and go try something completely different. never had more fun! I miss some of the shop reviews that got bagged out of existence. They get the gear early, post photos, and if you cut through the hype were informative.
Disclosure...... I am a BWS team rider. In the past 2 years I've owned BWS noise, Cabrinha drifters, & Ozone reos. Plus a variety of boards 2 from the BWS stable plus emery, MC, lost mayhem & others. I'm not married to the brand, but would like to see it succeed. I try and give honest and constructive feedback to the designers that may improve the product. If any of my reviews look like pimping, I don't mind being called on it. I pay for everything I ride.
Like Eppo I keep discovering different things I like especially in boards lately. A review is subjective and should be taken as such. At the end of the day a forum is for discussion. I'm more likely to highlight the positives and hesitant to fully bag any brands as its probably me more than the product that's at fault. E.g. I didn't like this years drifters and sold them straight away, yet Keahi blitzed the field and won the world title on them. Plus conditions, weight, skill level, all play a huge part.
Caveat Emptor! Globos meos lambe!
I for one welcome any review that has enough detail and reveals the writer has some inherent knowledge about kites, how they fly and can summarise their findings. I'd rather read an obvious biased (they tend to be this anyhow) team riders expose on a kite ( or a board, harness, bar and lines) than a lot of the topics that are presented. After all it is the gear we use every day, the equipment we are actually on the water that to me is priority.
I will give you an example of a poor review. There is a topic on the kiteforum that is on its 6th page about an obvious mako rip off with some personal modifications. This dude with obvious enthusiasm has basically rubbished every other board design on the market, saying this board is the ultimate and nothing else is worth looking at. To top of this idiocy he was using 2008 shinn boards as his baseline!!
I also don't subscribe to the one liners. This kite is the best, this board rocks etc. Why does it rock!
My obvious hectic change of gear was driven by a decision 3 years ago that it was about time I found the right gear for my disposition and style. In the process I have ridden some exceptional kites and boards but there was always something that didn't click. Unfortunately for my back pocket this took more than one or two demos. Bit what it did teach me, coupled with the previous 10 years is to correlate the aeronautics and board design specifics with empirical evidence. It has sky rocketed my understanding of kites and boards. There was also some honestly on my part, to understand what I'm capable of and how I ride. Sometimes this happens quickly for someone, but my all rounder approach to kiting led me into this market.
What I found? That all rounder kites do everything okay but nothing great. People will disagree with this or they may feel that okay equals very good and/or even okay is perfect for them.
So I demoed lots of kites, the last one a specific kite like an edge. Two tacks and the game was over.
Then when I went on a REO and just wave rided, loved it. Specific kites for specific purposes seemed to resonate with me.
But I wouldn't dismiss team riders, use their input, put this up against other riders reviews and even the marketing BS. pM the lot of them. Collate it all, sit down and read, read, read then demo.
So all input to me is welcome even the biased ones ( lets face it they all are even mine).
Ps the Sri Lankans are in a spot of bother. Bird looks the goods and Johnson is looking dangerous again.
The problem with reviews is that any time you come from a previous years model (sometimes 2 years previous), the kite is going to seem awesome. The second issue is over the year, the kite's performance detoriates. Bridles stretch, canopy stretches slightly, lines stretch etc so unless you test a 2011 vs 2012 brand new, it's always going to be an unfair comparison because the latest model will seem unrealistically better.
The second issue is that nobody has the time to test anything more than 4 or 5 kites before buying so their review should always be taking with a pinch of salt and people should really be saying what they tested in the review so people have an idea of what they are comparing it to.
The third issue is what you look for in a kite which has a massive distortion of the your review and perception of a kite. One guys dream kite is another guys nightmare kite. Guys coming from a switchblade to a switchblade are always going to think their new kite is fast, but shift to another brand and it'll feel slower than cancer. That's not to say it's a bad thing, the switchblade is a good kite depending on what you are looking for, it's just not a fast turning kite.
Perhaps a bit more complexity in the replies than Slave was hoping for. Slave is anti-shop, anti-team-rider and would appreciate if you'd all fall into line with him and write off anyone who ever took the time to share their knowledge and maybe made a buck or got subsidised gear in the process.
Obviously there are teamriders who lack subtlety and nous when it comes to their "reviews." That's hardly a revelation.
Obviously there are also cynics who lack subtlety when it comes to expressing their anti-industry bias. Slave is one of them.
Yet, for better or for worse, the industry - team riders and shops included - is what enables us to have any of this gear at all. Making your own board may be feasible, but making your own kite? It's far too precise an operation for anyone to compete with industrial production. Industry means brands, promotion, information, and sometimes mis-information. If Slave doesn't like it he should make all his own gear from now on, or only offer constructive input rather than ranting diatribe.
I think the team riders who are in for the long haul will have the sense to recommend specific gear to specific user groups and avoid meaningless blanket statements. They will offer feedback to designers and shops, and take seriously the concerns of users of their sponsor's products. They will look out for the interests of all kiters at the beach in terms of safety, access, and just offering friendly tip here and there.
It's a small community and a small industry. Any individual or business who regularly misleads will soon have a stinking reputation and the fate they deserve.
For myself, as a team rider I am happy to recommend my sponsors' gear. If I didn't like it I wouldn't ride it. It's not like I'm on a Slater-sized endorsement. If I felt I had to sell my soul to pimp gear it wouldn't be worth it for me. I'm a team rider because I tend to be up for helping out anyway. I may as well get cheaper gear for doing what I already do.
Waveslave is always looking for a target for his frustrations. He sometimes makes a decent point, but just as often reveals more about himself than about those he seeks to cut down.
Waveslave is one frequent forum poster who I have no idea what gear he rides...
Usually you can pick up what brand kite someone uses, but not him. He gives away nothing.
I reckon he rides Best Waroo's. Stuck in the 2007 bow kite revolution...
Lol.
Theres a few posters on here that use this effect too - they know who they are 
Plagiarism example
Chris just found some good stuff on the Web for his science report about sharks. He highlights a paragraph that explains that most sharks grow to be only 3 to 4 feet long and can't hurt people. Chris copies it and pastes it into his report. He quickly changes the font so it matches the rest of the report and continues his research.
Uh-oh. Chris just made a big mistake. Do you know what he did? He committed plagiarism (say: play-juh-rih-zem). Plagiarism is when you use someone else's words or ideas and pass them off as your own. It's not allowed in school, college, or beyond, so it's a good idea to learn the proper way to use resources, such as websites, books, and magazines.
Plagiarism is a form of cheating, but it's a little complicated so a kid might do it without understanding that it's wrong. Chris should have given the author and the website credit for the information. Why? Because Chris didn't know this information before he came to the website. These aren't his thoughts or ideas.
Some of the big kite magazines like kiteworld, kiteboarder and sbc kiteboardig - are usually more reliable for reviews giving you the brand hype, and then the pros n cons from a control group point of view.
This eliminates the single reviewer/team rider and his favourite style of riding and also "the Forum keyboarding Morons like this site has" making all sorts of dumbarse claims when they cant even tune a kitebar or their kite for a given windspeed !
So yes once again, Its all about the demo - if you can...
The guys who like moding stuff to tweak a little more from their gear are the ones i would most trust for an open minded review..
As I said before I feel all input is valuable. The more sources the better. Maybe a discussion on how some of the experienced crew choose their kites may be useful. From research to what they do when they demo a kite to when they buy. This may help crew choose the right kite.
I know what not to do....lol
